SAGINAW -- One too many players meant the Saginaw Spirit came up on the short end.

Saginaw was assessed a too many men on the ice penalty, when forward Vincent Trocheck jumped off the bench as the fifth Spirit player on the ice 90 seconds into the overtime period against the Peterborough Petes.

The Petes' Alan Quine tipped in a rebound 21 seconds later on the power play to give his team the win, 4-3, in front of 3,441 Friday night at The Dow Event Center.

Peterborough entered the game in 19th place in the 20-team OHL. The win was the team's fifth in 23 games this year.

Spirit coach Todd Watson took the blame for the penalty following the game, calling it a communication error.

The loss came two days after the Spirit suffered its first shutout loss of the season, 3-0 to the Plymouth Whalers.

This week has been no holiday for the Spirit.

"You look at our last two games and it's been pretty embarrassing on our behalf," Spirit forward and captain Jordan Szwarz said. "Guys have been giving no effort, not playing the way we should be."

The loss overshadowed a hat trick for Spirit forward Brandon Saad. It was Saad's second hat trick in his last five games, and his 19 goals in the season tie him for second in the league.

But Saad's offense was all Saginaw could muster, as the rest of the players have now gone scoreless for seven straight periods.

"A lot of guys struggled," Watson said.

Saad broke the team out of its scoring slump with four minutes left in the second period, tying the game on a shorthanded goal. He put the team ahead three minutes into the third period. Once more, Saginaw took the lead, and once more, Peterborough tied the game, sending it to overtime.

Jake Paterson, Saginaw's rookie goaltender, made his second career start and recorded 28 saves.

"He gave us a chance to win," Watson said.

This week marks the third time this season Saginaw has lost back-to-back games. The Spirit has yet to lose three games in a row this year.

Yet veteran Spirit players remember that it was this time last year when the season started to unravel. Starting Nov. 20, Saginaw lost 11 of 13 games.

In a quiet Spirit locker room after the game, the focus was on not letting that happen again, starting with a Saturday home game against the Windsor Spitfires.

"I think to prevent things from going in that direction, guys really need to step up, start playing together as a team, start playing the way we can," Szwarz said. "Simple hockey, guys are trying to do too much individual stuff on this team right now and that's obviously not working for us. We need to get back to our old ways."